Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope – Movie Review

The background story: A childhood dream

From a very young age George Lucas felt passionated by film making. His first attempts started at the age of eighteen, using a 8mm camera filming car racing, one of his youth hobbies back then in the 60’s.

The idea of Star Wars Universe come to him inspired by one of his childhood heroes, Flash Gordon, the protagonist of a comic strip from a renowned 1934 space opera. In the beginning Lucas wanted to make an adaptation of the adventures of his heroe, though he never got the rights, then he decided to write a whole new story, and so Star Wars had been born. Star Wars story was also inspired by the epic British tale Beowulf, Akira Kurosawa films and King Arthur life.

Adventures of Luke Star-killer: The Journal of the Whills

1977 was the release date of the first of the three movies from the Star Wars original trilogy, it came into theaters with a plain name: Star Wars. The first name Lucas chose for this film was something way longer: The Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Star-killer, back in 1975, but he changed it to simply Star Wars, and episode IV and the subtitle A New Hope was later added after the release of the second prequel trilogy, so the fans can follow the sequence of the movies.

A Brief Plot: Star Wars, the beginning of an epic adventure

The film main argument is the the efforts of the Resistance, the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire and the plans to destroy their base, The Dreadful Death Star, a powerful station with enough power to destroy a whole planet.

Luke Skywalker a farm boy from the desert planet Tatooine, is given two droids, an astro-mech named R2-D2 and a protocol droid named C-3PO to be clean and prepared, which were recently purchased by his uncle to work on their moist farms. Later Luke discovers by accident a message broadcasted by a Rebel Princess, hidden inside the R2-D2, this message was addressed to Obi-Wan Kenobi, and it also says that inside this droid where the plans to destroy the Galactic Empire’s Death Star.

Luke decides to look for the old Obi-Wan Kenobi, known as a hermit that live a solitary life in the hills of Tatooine. Obi-Wan tells Luke his real story, that he was a Jedi Knight who serves in the Galactic Republic.

Luke decides to go with Obi-Wan to help Princess Leia after finding out his home had been destroyed and his uncles brutaly killed by the Imperial storm-troopers.

They hire Han Solo, a smuggler and his companion a wookie named Chewbacca to take them to Alderaan in his ship the Millennium Falcon an old but powerful ship.

Later they find out Planet Alderaan had been destroyed by the Death Star, and Falcon got captured and taken into the Death Star. Luke, Chewbacca and Solo sneak into the Death Star and rescue Princess Leia, while Obi-Wan starts a duel with Darth Vader, to distract him so the others can scape, dying in the dueling.

Finally they discovered a weak point in the main reactor to destroy the Death Star, Luke joint the rebels piloting a X-wing guided by Obi-Wan spirit and the force. Solo attemps to flee but Luke convince him to stay and fight the Empire, they finally succeed and destroy the Death Star, and Princess Leia give them heroism medals for their efforts and achivements.

A high-gross film

Star Wars Saga is considered as one of the few high-grossing films ever made, it means this films had not only generate revenue from box office but from many streams such as: merchandise, TV broadcasting, internet, home video, etc. This made this film the beginning of an overwhelming success for George Lucas film-making career.

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Star Wars is a pop culture phenomenon, a cult movie, there is even a real life religion based on the Jedi Order and their belief of the force. This is a saga that any sci-fi lover must watch, a total delight for the eyes and mind.

Interesting Facts:

The original last name of the most famous family in Star War franchise was not Skywalker but Starkiller, and Luke and Leia’s father original name was Annikin later changed to Anakin

The scenes from the Endor’s moon where taken on the Redwood National Park in United States of America and the Rebel base from Yavin is a place named Tikal located in Guatemala.

George Lucas wanted new actors to be the main characters for this history, due to this Harrison Ford was almost rejected to play the role of Han Solo but later Lucas was convinced that he would made an excellent performance and decided to give him the role. Carrie Fisher had to lose 10 pounds to play the role of Princess Leia.